Nick Faulkner ’16 fired off three consecutive goals to start Andover Boys Water Polo’s game against Williston Northampton on Saturday. Faulkner, who has had 11 goals this season, continued to dominate the pool and propelled the previous winless Andover team to victory in Saturday’s game.
Andover’s almost impenetrable defense proved crucial in its 25-4 and 24-1 doubleheader wins over Williston and Hotchkiss.
“The game on Saturday went extremely well,” said Aaron Teo ’15. “The team definitely performed better than in the previous two weeks. The team did exceptionally well on the defensive end and held the opponents to only five goals.”
After close losses earlier in the season, Andover’s work in practice gave it the strength to end the games well.
The team significantly tightened its defense, which in turn allowed it to capitalize on the opponents’ errors.
“As the saying goes, a good offense starts with good defense, and that saying definitely proved correct last Saturday,” said Teo.
“In addition to good defense, our communication in the pool was significantly better than in the past two games and this helped us to score off exclusions and counter attacks more,” added Teo.
The team used its sizable leads to give less experienced players the chance to practice and gain valuable game experience. With just one large team this year instead of the usual Varsity and JV teams, depth will be a crucial factor in Andover’s success.
“Both games this weekend were mainly counter-attack based, since we had a faster team than both Hotchkiss and Williston,” said David Cao ’14.
With two wins under its belt, Andover is more confident than ever in its ability to continue strengthening the team.
“It is great to be .500,” said Co-Captain Andrew Yang ’14. “Hopefully we can carry this momentum into the rest of the season.”
“Looking forward, I really think that this year we have a solid chance at winning Andover’s first ever championship,” continued Cao. “We’ve definitely shown it in both the games against Exeter and Brunswick, and we can only get better from here on out.”
Andover hopes for another win this Saturday against Choate.
